This paper analyzes both the conscious and the unconscious experience of the individual self, in exploring the psychological effects of music on the listener. Because of the scant amount of evidence available about these powerful effects, music is compared to the dream state. Both music and dream involve controlled regression which provides access to preverbal and primary process imagery and emotion. The psychological effects of music are first explored in the language of drive and ego psychology. The authors then analyze the physiological measures assessing the function and lateralization of the brain while listening to music. Because music provides such a powerful experience of the self, the second half of the paper is devoted to a self psychological focus. The primary function performed by music listened to as a selfobject is that it offers a matching or twinship experience. The listener's mood is matched by the music, permitting the sense of a shared inner experience and an affective moment of attunement with the composer and performers.